I've been to the year two
thousand and sixteen.
Not much has changed but we look
a little older.
And in some ways it’s true, but
in others that’s not the case at all.
Busted are back, and while it
would be easy to cast a jaundiced eye over the reformation to fit with the
stereotype of the older -, but still trying to be hip - curmudgeon music fan
looking down my nose at the teenybopper icons, I just can’t find it in my heart
to do so.
Why?
Well to put it in very simple
terms there’s not a lot that anyone could comfortably hang a critique on.
A claim of not liking what they
are doing is the airing of a subjective view, but to say they aren’t cutting it
musically, or in the delivery of their material, would be a downright lie.
From the Blade Runner styled reboot
of the Pink Floyd pig balloon floating past, to the darker dystopian angle on
the animal farm pig masks that nudged the playful ‘pigs can fly’ tour title out
of the frame, the band have stepped up and coloured their brand with much
darker adult tones that eases visually towards Roger Waters territory.
The new music doesn’t reflect
that, but it is far more introspective and mature as it veers into the adult
orientated niche that the Goo Goo Dolls have such a firm grip on.
That tiny step musically does however
make sense, as to go away as Busted, the teen dream scream of yesteryear, and
come back reflecting all the ugliness of adult life without a slicker veneer
would be career suicide.
So instead the visuals are a
little ahead and the music is still transitioning, while the over all impression
given is that they know exactly what they are doing.
Listen to new single ‘I’m Coming
Home*’ next to ‘Crashed the Wedding’ and there’s nothing to link them, but with
a careful eye on the running order of the hits and newbies the band avoid any
jarring clashes, and there is arguable not even a hint of a dip in the crowds
reaction as they lap up everything thrown at them.
Busted literally have this nailed
down.
The crowd is of course still
largely made up of young women.
The preteens and teens of over a
decade ago, - yes over a decade ago – and they are still enthralled by Matt,
James and Charlie, but the hyper response that they keyed into has now been tempered
by their own maturity and they are ready to be taken by the hand and guided
towards the reality that will be Busted 2.0.
This changing gears career wise
from a band that’s core audience is largely young and female into something
that has a wider demographic appeal has proven to be far too difficult a
stumbling block for so many others, and only time will tell if Busted can do it,
but all the pieces are most certainly in place and if they fail to secure a
second bite of the apple then there can be no blame laid at their feet as it
will be more a case of wrong place and wrong time rather than a reflection on
their efforts.
On leaving the cavernous Hydro there
was only one thought that reared up in my head, and that was ‘well that just
kicked the awful taste of McBusted doing that truly fuckin offensively pop punk
by numbers abortion of a track ‘Air Guitar’ out of everyone’s mouth.’
Not a bad thing really.
*On listening to the electronica
version from the studio it fails to come close to the guitar driven live
rendition.
